


Traitorous Voice (Best of Me)

by Enigma13



Category: Pitch Perfect (Movies)
Genre: Best of Me by The Starting Line, F/F, Fluff and Angst, Getting Together, bechloe endgame, not much angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-03
Updated: 2018-08-03
Packaged: 2019-06-21 00:33:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,866
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15545679
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Enigma13/pseuds/Enigma13
Summary: Chloe always wanted something real, something exciting, and something long lasting when it came to her love life. It was right in front of her all along, even when she denied herself the very thought.





	Traitorous Voice (Best of Me)

**Author's Note:**

> Hi guys! So, I was on my way to my internship today and this song came on my IPod and it immediately struck me as a Bechloe song, and in one day, I both thought of, planned, wrote, and proofread the entire thing. I got emotional writing it and that almost never happens, but I guess its just the song.
> 
> This may be the cheesiest thing I've ever written, and I'm sorry. I just had to get it on paper or it was never going to leave me alone, I hope you understand. This is my second work in the PP fandom, so if you wanna check out my Bechloe Pokemon AU, it should be around here somewhere.
> 
> The song is Best of Me by The Starting Line. Chloe sings it in this fic, and if you'd like to follow along while reading, you already have to pretend it is Chloe's voice, but pause after the bridge right before the last chorus, if you want to get the pause right in the fic. If not, just listen to it before or after you read the fic and enjoy the fluff and the tiny bit of angst at the beginning!

Chloe hadn’t really ever had the best luck when it came to long-term relationships over the years. That wasn’t to say that she wasn’t happy for parts of them, or that she had an aversion to them, in fact, it was something she desired since high school, to find that perfect person and settle down. With her being pansexual, the dating pool was wide open for her to find anyone that she possibly wanted and feel that feeling that she only heard about in movies and books. That wasn’t how it worked out though.

In college, she’d been on many dates, and one-night stands, and she’d had her fill by the time senior year rolled around. That’s when it was she and Aubrey’s turn to lead the Bellas into the coming years, and that’s where her life really changed. She met all the girls they recruited that year, including her best friend Beca, and they’d won the championship. She’d never felt closer to any group of people than she did with the Bellas, and never to one person like she did Beca. It was perfect, and she’d even stayed on an extra three years at Barden to enjoy it for as long as she could. It was during those three extra years that she’d discovered that she was, and maybe had been since the beginning, in love with Beca. 

It wasn’t this shocking revelation that knocked the wind out of her; it was this soft glow that permeated her entire being when she was around the other girl. However, Beca was dating Jesse, and while Chloe knew that Beca was bisexual, it never really seemed like the right time, and after it started effecting her mood in day to day life, to the point of doing poorly in classes (not on purpose), she forced herself to not think of Beca that way, no matter how hard it was. No matter how soft Beca was with her, and no matter how easily Beca allowed Chloe to climb her walls, she refused to allow herself to have hope when it was hopeless.

By the time Beca, Amy, and herself had moved to New York, it was something that she could say was effectively in her past. There were almost no flare-ups of those old emotions, even while sharing a bed with the alt girl. It was valiant of her, if she did say so herself, even more so when Beca and Jesse broke up not long into their stay. But, Chloe refused to give in, and with iron will, she forced herself on date after date with people, never feeling a connection that she knew was supposed to go into that feeling of a relationship that you wanted to last a while. She would talk about it with Beca, who wasn’t good at dating advice, and a nagging, small, traitorous voice in the back of her head couldn’t help but point out that Beca didn’t try to date anyone during that time.

When the USO tour finally came around, she’d been so excited to be on a trip with the girls, and to be singing again. It was a great distraction from her less than stellar dating life, and from her career stagnation. It would give her space to figure out what exactly was holding her up on each of those sects of her life, and she’d get to do it with her favorite people. And, that was what made Chicago such a pleasant surprise on their first day. He was cute, and Chloe had always had a thing for uniforms.

At first, it was just flirtation, but as the trip wore on, she couldn’t help but feel excited when she knew that they were going to talk, or get that giddy feeling in her gut when he smiled at her. Of course, when she and the other Bellas were in trouble with Amy’s dad, that all went out the window for a bit, but afterwards it returned, so that had to be a sign. She hadn’t felt anything this intense since… well, since Beca, though this was still early. Of course, the other big news was Beca being signed by DJ Khaled and Chloe couldn’t be more proud of her.

When Beca performed her song as a solo artist for the first time, Chloe couldn’t help but get chills at seeing the girl who ‘didn’t sing’ several years ago, be a signed artist and producer now. When she locked eyes with Chloe, her heart jumped, and it made her really think about what she wanted in life, and how Beca had just taken the plunge with the Bellas, which led her to here. The warmness in her chest didn’t dissipate after the song, and she knew that it was her turn to take a chance and take a plunge even when she didn’t know what was at the bottom, or if there was one. So she’d found Chicago after the set and kissed him.

It had been a good kiss. A really good kiss, and she couldn’t help but feel all tingly and fuzzy inside. She thought that she’d finally found what she wanted in that part of her life, something stable and long term, though, that traitorous voice in her head, kept having her glance over to Beca at the after party, even while she was talking to Chicago, and she’d always catch Beca looking at her with an unreadable expression. That scared her more than anything, because she could always tell what her friend was thinking, but couldn’t for the remainder of the trip.

It didn’t take her long to find out because, not a month after they returned, Beca announced that she was going to LA for eight months to work on her first album, and do a little producing and promotion as well. It had blind-sided Chloe when Beca handed her the rent for those months and bid her goodbye for now. Chloe also couldn’t help the realization that Beca hadn’t even flown out of the airport yet, and she already missed her, while she hadn’t seen Chicago in a month and was perfectly content texting him.

The next months went by slowly for Chloe. Vet classes were hard, but she felt sure that this was her future, and now that she had a vision of what she wanted, nothing was going to stop her from achieving it. Chicago was a constant encouraging presence, with Skype calls and text messages, he really was sweet with how he talked with her. Beca kept in semi frequent contact with her, she was busy, and Chloe understood. They’d talk for hours when she did call though, about everything and nothing. She’d met Beca’s band, the instrumentalist that played on her tracks that is, and made friends with several of them, especially the guitarist Ariana, who had a dry sense of humor like Beca, but was as great a sounding board for Chloe as she was for Beca.

That traitorous voice in her head, the one that would overthink and overanalyze things, couldn’t help but point out that when Beca was calling or texting, all other texts and calls were ignored, even Chicago’s. Not only that, but Beca had a routine she noticed developing ever since they’d started to talk. Chloe would always inevitably ask about Beca making friends over there, and Beca would shrug it off, not really revealing if she was making friends there or not, whether at work or outside of it. She knew Beca was semi close to the band, but other than that, Beca told her that she always came home and slept or did nothing. When Chloe had commented that it sounded very lonely, Beca would pause for a couple seconds before asking her about Chicago.

No matter what Chloe did, Beca always asked about Chicago last, and it was a trend that Chloe couldn’t quite figure out the reason for. Beca was a great listener and made the proper comments before saying that she had to go to bed and would sign off. And while sometimes, that would be in the middle of her talking about him, Chloe never minded because of course Beca was tired. It made sense.

The reason the routine became so important, was because as the months wore on, and Beca’s album got closer to release, and Chicago’s visit date was coming up, a fact she had mentioned to Beca with excitement, the communication deteriorated further and further, and it was really starting to upset her. Beca was her constant, and without her, she felt adrift.

When Chicago did finally come… it was a disaster. There was no spark, all the talking and all the cute messages, hadn’t made her really miss him, especially when this thing with Beca was really bugging her. All the newness and excitement of being overseas with him had seemed to fizzle out the moment his plane touched down. He was there only for a couple of days, but their dates were quiet, when their lips touched there was no tingly feeling, there were no emotions at all. He seemed to realize it too, and they awkwardly lay in Chloe and Beca’s bed and said nothing. That happened the next two days before she drove him to the airport and they quietly broke up in the car ride. She didn’t understand how something that seemed so right, just went away with a little distance. That traitorous voice told her that distance didn’t matter when it came to Beca.

Chloe could understand being busy, but she was used to Beca making time for her no matter what, and the fact that she knew that Beca came home and isolated herself after each recording section, she couldn’t even imagine what was causing her to ignore Chloe. The anger and resentment at her best friend didn’t start until after she tried to call to tell her that things had not gone well with Chicago. When Beca’s phone went straight to voicemail, Chloe felt offended. She felt stepped on in a way that Beca never really made her feel before. The traitorous part of her mind told her that Beca might have gotten better friends, or a significant other, and had forgotten about them. 

A quick text message to Ariana had yielded little in the way of comfort. The guitarist said that there hadn’t really been a change in Beca’s behavior. She still didn’t go out for drinks or do club nights. She simply went home and came in the next morning to do her sessions. This just pissed Chloe off more, and she simply sunk into her class work to not think about how shitty she felt all the time.

With two months until Beca was due back, if she came back, Chloe held her birthday celebration. Aubrey flew in and her and Amy took Chloe out for a nice dinner and brought her back to the apartment, Aubrey’s nose had wrinkled at calling their shoe closest sized space an apartment, to open her presents. Amy had gotten her a cut off shirt that said: “On Ya Mate” with the Australian flag covering the rest of it, as well as a roll of condoms. She wasn’t quite sure where Amy got the idea that she might need that, but the girl’s heart was in the right place, so she thanked her. Aubrey had gotten her a couple of expensive books to do with animal anatomy, and some helpful charts for her future office space. She expected nothing less than practical from the blonde. She thought she was done, but then, Amy pulled one more present out.

“Beca had this ready for me to give to you, on your birthday. Had it wrapped before she even left.” Chloe wasn’t sure what to feel. She wasn’t the happiest with Beca right now, but it was a gift, that Beca had thought ahead on for her birthday. That was really thoughtful, so she reached forward to take it. It was a small rectangular box that was carefully wrapped in orange paper, a knock at Chloe’s hair color she was sure, with a dark blue bow wrapped around it. She peeled it off carefully, taking care with it and pulling apart the tape on the wrapping paper instead of ripping it completely off.

When she opened the box, tears sprang to her eyes. The items inside registered immediately. Amy must not have read her reaction right because she sucked a bit of air in through her teeth and tutted. “Ouch, Shortstack got you fake jewelry? That’s a tough break, red.”

Chloe shook her head, delicately taking the leather cord necklace out of the box and holding it before her. On it were two ornaments, one was a (fake) gold ring with a blue gem (also fake) in the center, and the other was a silver circle that had the shape of a tree inside of it, the branches connecting all the parts of the ring. “I can’t believe she remembered.”

Aubrey placed a hand on Chloe’s knee. “What is it, Chloe? I’m not as quick to judge as Amy, but it does look pretty fake as far as jewelry goes.”

Chloe smiled, tears still in her eyes. “My parents had their honeymoon in Paris, so when we had some time off, Beca and I went to the markets, the kind that tourists go to, and I saw these at a stall, and told her how when my parents were there, they bought ones that looked like these for each other at a ridiculous price that those kind of people try to gouge out of tourists. They didn’t realize they were fakes until the desk person at the hotel pointed it out, and by then it became an amusing story they liked to tell, and they kept the jewelry, at least until the fire.” Chloe had been in her freshman year when her parents had died in a house fire along with most of their belongings. She’d gotten through it with a lot of therapy, but it had been incredibly tough to have almost nothing to remember them by. “I can’t believe she remembered that story and the items…”

Amy snorted, “Are you kidding? Beca remembers everything you say, that poor girl is so whipped and you don’t even love her back.”

Aubrey’s hand clamped over Amy’s mouth one second too late. Chloe’s brain short-circuited in that one moment and all she could hear was the echo of what Amy said. “Back?”

Aubrey hit Amy on the shoulder. “Dammit, Amy!”

Chloe held the necklace in her hand with a vice grip and vaulted over the table to crouch in front of Amy. “What did you mean?”

Amy had the good sense to look chastised. “Well… Shawshank, may or may not, and you didn’t hear it from me, but she might, kind of, totally be in love with you. Since like, forever.”

Aubrey groaned into her hands, and Chloe turned a daggered look to her. “You knew too, and you didn’t tell me?” 

The blonde didn’t seem particularly phased by Chloe’s glare and sighed. “Everyone, but you, knew. It was obvious without Beca saying anything, but when she told Amy and I officially, it was simply confirming what we already knew.” Aubrey glared at Amy again. “And we promised not to say anything.” Amy whistled innocently while Chloe continued to glare at Aubrey. When she turned her attention back and locked eyes with Chloe again, she gave her a reprimanding look. “You know it wasn’t our place to say anything, Chloe.”

Chloe knew that she was right, but her emotions were high, and she felt like she was having an adrenaline rush. That traitorous voice was pointing out all the obvious clues that she’d forced herself to miss. That traitorous voice was pointing out that the connection, the one that was supposed to come from those long term, once in a lifetime, love stories was the kind of connection she felt for Beca all along. That traitorous voice was screaming in the back of her mind, telling her to do something, anything, to end the years long torture that they’d, apparently, each been under. She came to the realization, that the voice wasn’t so traitorous after all. It had been right from the very beginning.

She ducked under her bed and grabbed her suitcase, pulling it out, and taking a handful of her clothes from the rack that separated Amy’s room from hers and stuffed it in there, not messing around with neatness. Aubrey was up behind her with a confused look. “A suitcase? Where are you going?”

“LA. Get on my computer and book me a ticket on the next flight out from JFK.” When Aubrey simply gaped at her like a fish, Chloe clapped her hands together making the other girl jump. “Now!”

Aubrey moved to grab for it and began clicking away, even as Chloe zipped up her suitcase and made for the door. She stopped for a second at the threshold and turned back. “Amy?”

Amy snapped to attention and moved closer. “Yes, ma’am?”

She held out the necklace that was still in her hands. “Before I go… can you put it on me?”

Amy’s face softened and she uncharacteristically agreed and did so without complaint. With the new pressure around her neck, and a bit more pressure than that weighing down her mind and heart she stalked out of the door with Aubrey calling out her flight information and the cab that was on its way in five minutes. 

An idea sparked as she waited on the sidewalk for her cab, and she grabbed her cell phone and dialed the person she needed to pull this off. When they picked up she didn’t even bother with a hello. “Ariana. I’m coming to LA. Don’t tell Beca, and I need your help with something.”

 

Beca was sitting in the mixing booth with her assistant Alexis. She had the earphones on, and was currently listening to one of her own tracks that she couldn’t quite get right with the mix. It was beyond frustrating, though it could have been her not sleeping well the last few weeks. It’d been rough since they got back from the USO tour, though she couldn’t complain about the newfound fame and career in music. It was all because of Chloe and her stupid city boyfriend.

Beca didn’t really have a right to be angry with her, she was the one who stuck around in a dead end relationship for a couple years that she didn’t have to because she couldn’t face her true feelings that she’d had since freshman year of college. After the break up with Jesse, well, Beca was a coward, so she never could tell Chloe about her feelings, at least until the USO tour when it had been nothing but Chloe on her mind for a majority of the trip. Then, after Chloe had been so supportive of her being signed by DJ Khaled, she couldn’t help but lock eyes with her in the crowd during her Freedom 90 performance. She knew that it was the right time to tell her, there was no way that she could go back and share a bed with her best friend without getting this off her chest.

When she’d followed her out after the performance and saw her kiss Chicago, she couldn’t help but feel that she deserved it after waiting so long. So she buried the feelings once again, and gone back to New York with nothing changed. When the chance to go to LA to work on her first album had come up, Beca had jumped at the opportunity, even if they had a satellite office in New York that they said she was free to use instead. She needed some distance from this whole situation, especially with Chicago and Chloe being a thing now, and visits pending. She didn’t want to be around when those occurred. 

Now she was here, listening to a song she co-wrote and her own voice sounding almost perfect through her headphones. It was a good distraction, especially since she’d been ignoring Chloe during and after Chicago’s visit. She had forced herself to be a good friend and listen to Chloe go on and on about Chicago in the months leading up to it, but she didn’t think she could sit there on the other end of the line and listen to her talk about how perfect he was, and how perfect the sex was, and how she couldn’t wait to marry him and blah, blah, blah. It would have killed her.

A buzz cut through the sound of her headphones a bit as her assistant got a text. She smiled apologetically to Beca before scrolling through it, her eyes lighting up and her front teeth sinking into her bottom lip. Beca turned her attention back, to give the girl some privacy with her significant other, or whoever was on the other side of the conversation, when she felt Alexis’ presence slide closer and felt her hand on the right side of her earphones. She heard a click, and the song she had been listening to fell to silence. She was about to open up her mouth to question what was going on when she heard a throat clear on the other side. After it did, an acoustic guitar sounded, and the same voice that cleared its throat seemed to burst forth in song.

 

**Tell me what you thought about when you were gone and so alone  
The worst is over  
You can have the best of me  
We got older but we're still young  
We never grew out of this feeling that we won't give up**

 

Beca would recognize that singing voice anywhere. That was Chloe, through and through, and her heart leapt into her throat. She looked up confused at her assistant, who simply shrugged and smiled enigmatically. Beca’s thoughts were all jumbled down, the song and the soft way that Chloe sang the lyrics… it had to mean something. The headphones she was wearing were connected and could be dialed into any of the recording booths in the building and her assistant had flipped them away from the one they were currently in. Beca could just pull them off, but she didn’t want to miss a second of Chloe’s voice or what this song could mean. Just as she said that, her heart thudded again as the guitar and drums kicked up a notch and she felt the cold shivers and goose bumps that accompanied that change. She needed to find her. She leapt from her chair and sprinted out the door, heading for the next booth down the hall.

 

**Here we lay again  
On two separate beds  
Sporting four posts  
We here a familiar voice  
From pictures drawn from  
Memory  
We reflect on  
Miscommunications and misunderstandings  
And missing each other too  
Must do without to let go**

 

The drums thudded in time with her heart during the verse and she skidded to a halt, running much too fast in a building with such expensive equipment. She opened the door, only to see an empty recording studio. She cursed and moved back out quickly, her mind whirring. Could Chloe mean what she thought she might mean?

 

**Turn our music down  
And we whisper  
Say what you're thinking right now**

 

Beca wanted to. She wanted, at that moment, to tell Chloe everything that she’d thought since freshman year. She didn’t want to let another chance pass her by. Not when the love and the connection she felt for her red-haired best friend had been so strong and consistent for so many years, and every touch was electric, and every compliment or whispered word meant everything to her.

 

**Tell me what you thought about when you were gone and so alone  
The worst is over  
You can have the best of me  
We got older but we're still young  
We never grew out of this feeling that we won't give up**

 

The next room was also empty, and Beca was beginning to get frustrated, tears, not sad ones, but not particularly happy ones either, were filling her eyes as her emotions came crashing back from where she’d stored them away for so long. She stomped out again, her legs seeming to move on their own, knowing the outline of the building by now, leaving her ears to listen to the lyrics that seemed to be talking about them being something, being apart, and coming back together, but in a new way.

 

**Jumping to conclusions  
Made me fall away from you  
I'm so glad that the truth  
Has brought that together  
Me and you  
We're sitting on the ground (sitting on the ground)  
And we whisper (and we whisper)  
Say what you're thinking out loud**

 

Beca pounded down the stairs to the lower level to the other rooms, and felt the now familiar chorus start again, even as she neared one of the last two doors, Chloe’s voice still ringing loud and sure in her ears.

 

**Tell me what you thought when you were gone and so alone  
The worst is over  
You can have the best of me  
We got older but we're still young  
We never grew out of the feeling that we won't give up**

 

No dice on this room either. That left one more, and it seemed that the guitarist took over for a bit, and it then faded into something softer, like it had in the beginning, and she could hear Chloe’s voice beginning to break a little bit with uncertainty. Beca still hadn’t shown up yet, and she could hear the fear in her voice as she sang the bridge, even as Beca closed in on the final room.

 

**Turn our music down  
And we whisper  
We're sitting on the ground  
And we whisper  
We turn our music down  
We're sitting on the ground  
The next time I'm in town  
We will kiss girl  
We will kiss girl**

 

Beca busted into the room, right as the music all faded out, only leaving Chloe’s breaking voice. At that moment, that Chloe stopped and looked through the glass to see Beca, crying and eyes full of wonder and amazement, she let forth the most dazzling smile that shone through into Beca’s heart with its intensity. She was standing among Beca’s band members who all saw her as well, and were smiling in that conspiratorial way that Beca wouldn’t have the heart to reprimand them for later. Chloe, with renewed confidence belted out the final chorus, her eyes still locked onto Beca, as she jumped as the rest of the band did the same and came back in with a crash.

 

**Tell me what you thought about when you were gone and so alone  
The worst is over  
You can have the best of me  
We got older but we're still young  
We never grew out of this feeling that we won't  
Feeling that we can't  
We're not ready to give up**

 

Beca opened the door with shaky hands as the rest of the band faded out and it was just Chloe’s vocals with Ariana’s guitar.

 

**We got older but we're still young  
We never grew out of this feeling that we won't give up**

 

The door swung open, leaving no barrier between Beca and Chloe, as they stared at each other. Chloe was still near the microphone, and her slight hitch in breath resounded in her headphones, reminding her that she still had them on. She puled them off, letting the expensive equipment drop from her grasp as she sprung forward, just as Chloe did the same, and their lips met in the middle. The explosions behind her eyelids, static under her skin, and heat rushed through every single extremity that Beca had. The kiss felt like it had been going on for hours, yet Beca could have gone on so much longer, when they pulled back, and rested their foreheads against one another.

Chloe spoke first. “I love you. I’m so sorry you waited this long.”

Beca chuckled tearfully, “Don’t… don’t apologize, not when this is what we have now. I didn’t speak up either… and I love you too, you nerd.”

They grinned at each other, looking through their lashes into each other’s eyes. Chloe broke the silence again, “I have so much to tell you, but…” She grinned wide, like a huge dope. “I guess we have all the time in the world now.”

Beca nodded dumbly, struck by her beauty and that all of this, what she’d dreamed about for years was finally in reach. “Yeah… yeah we do.”

Chloe leaned forward and captured her lips again in a soft kiss, her lower lips fitting between hers like it was made for that position, before pulling back and lowering her voice to a whisper. “Right now though… you better take me home, Ms. Mitchell.”

Beca couldn’t resist the expectant shudder that went through her, even as she reached for her phone to call her driver.

**Author's Note:**

> Cheesy right? I'm ashamed of myself, but oddly proud of this.
> 
> Please tell me what you think!
> 
> Love you guys, see you soon!


End file.
